Living Cape: A Human Settlements Framework | Western Cape Government

Living Cape: A Human Settlements Framework

2019
(Western Cape Government)
Summary

The aim of the Living Cape Framework is to improve how people live in urban areas by setting out clearly both what needs to be done differently and how this can be achieved.

The Living Cape Framework aims to support a departure from the current housing delivery model. The focus of the Framework is explicitly on improving the quality of human settlements. Sustainable human settlements, in this Framework, are understood as holistic spaces which bring together:

• Housing and land
• Social and economic services
• Networked infrastructure
• Communities and social fabric

Seeing human settlements as holistic requires acknowledging the need for integration within human settlements (for example integration between housing and services). It also requires acknowledging important connections between human settlements and broader social, spatial, natural, and economic systems.

The aim of the Living Cape Framework is to improve how people live in urban areas by setting out clearly both what needs to be done differently and how this can be achieved. It is not focused on increasing the supply of state-developed, greenfield housing: while delivery of housing is important, the scope of the Framework goes beyond this. Living Cape does not seek to prescribe a set approach to the development of sustainable human settlements. It aims, instead, to inspire and motivate creative, innovative and adaptive practice on the part of all those involved in human settlements development in the Western Cape.

Living Cape was developed though a long-term collaborative process between WCG officials and researchers at the African Centre for Cities. The key ideas were co-produced by an inter-disciplinary and inter-sector group of stakeholders. Five background research papers were produced to support the process.

The content on this page was last updated on 11 February 2019